In the south, slavery exists in its most unqualified condition, wanting those milder modifications which serve to dress and decorate the person of this ugly fiend. Here may be seen hundreds of animals of our own genus exposed in the public bazaars for sale, and examined with as much care, and precisely in the same manner, as we examine horses. In some of the slave states the law prohibits the separation of families, but this prohibition is little attended to, as the slave has no possibility of coming in contact with any dispensers of justice but the magistrates of the state, who, being slave-holders themselves, instead of redressing his grievances, would be more likely to order him a lashing, for presuming to complain. Many melancholy instances occur here, which clearly illustrate the evils of slavery and its demoralizing influence on the human character. The arguments against slavery are deduced from self-evident propositions, and must carry conviction to every well organized mind; yet from their application being of too general a character, they seldom interest the feelings, and in the end leave less impression than the simple statement of a particular occurrence. During my stay, a Doctor ---- came down the river with thirty slaves, among which were an old negro and negress, each between sixty and seventy years of age; this unfortunate old woman had borne twenty-one children, all of whom had been at different times sold in the Orleans market, and carried into other states, and into distant parts of Louisiana. The Doctor said, in order to induce her to leave home quietly, that he was bringing her into Louisiana for the purpose of placing her with some of her children--"and now," says the old negress, "aldo I suckle my massa at dis breast, yet now he sell me to sugar planter, after he sell all my children away from me." This gentleman was a strict Methodist, or "saint," and is, I was informed, much esteemed by the preachers of that persuasion, because of his liberal contributions to their support. Negresses, when young and likely, are often employed as wet nurses by white people, as also by either the planter or his friends, to administer to their sensual desires--this frequently as a matter of speculation, for if the offspring, a mulatto, be a handsome female, from 800 to 1000 dollars may be obtained for her in the Orleans market.[11] It is an occurrence of no uncommon nature to see the Christian father sell his own daughter, and the brother his own sister, by the same father. Slaves do not marry, but pair at discretion; and the more children they produce, the better for their masters. On the Levée at New Orleans, are constantly exhibited specimens of the white man's humanity, in the persons of runaway slaves. When such an unfortunate negro is retaken, a log is chained to one of his legs, and round his neck is placed an iron collar, from which project three sharp prongs more than a foot in length each.